Advocacy

A wide array of associations, led by ABA, will begin reaching out this week to gubernatorial candidates about the need for sales tax fairness. ABA is asking its member booksellers in the states that collect sales tax but that do not currently have e-fairness laws to help with the effort.

This week, ABA joined with more than 200 national and state organizations representing a diverse array of small businesses to urge the U.S. House of Representatives to support an amendment to regulate swipe fees charged by banks for debit-card transactions.

According to North Carolina Department of Revenue (NCDOR) Secretary Kenneth R. Lay, his department has no interest in obtaining, nor did it ask for, title-specific book data from Amazon.com in the state's efforts to enforce its use tax laws.

Two insightful, forceful, and persuasive advocates defended opposing sides of a nuanced and important free speech issue at a BEA debate sponsored by the American Booksellers Association for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers’ Freedom to Read Committee, and the Freedom to Read Foundation. 

ABA's Day of Education session "Power to the Bookseller" featured ABA CEO Oren Teicher and Jim Sherin, president and CEO of the Retail Council of New York.

This week, the final state-specific fact sheets were added to the E-Fairness Action Kit (E-FACT) on BookWeb.org.  E-FACT provides booksellers with a wide array of tools for their e-fairness outreach efforts.

Jim Sherin, president and CEO of the Retail Council of New York, provides a preview of the lessons from New York's e-fairness victory, as well as tips on lobbying lawmakers, which he will share at  "Power to the Bookseller" at ABA's Day of Education.

A Connecticut bill that would have required remote retailers that had online affiliates in the state acting as sales agents to collect and remit sales tax was tabled as the legislative session ended on Thursday, May 6. Though the bill, HB 5481, passed the Finance Committee with strong support, lawmakers backed away from the bill after Amazon.com threatened to fire its Connecticut affiliates if the bill was signed into law.

Following media coverage of Amazon.com's legal challenge to North Carolina's attempts to collect sales tax for online sales, a New York Times editorial characterized the retail giant's federal court action as a "losing battle to defend its longstanding practice of not collecting sales taxes in most states where it does business."

This week, 10 more state-specific fact sheets were added to the E-Fairness Action Kit (E-FACT) on BookWeb.org, the American Bookseller Association's member website. Next week, the ABA will add the final fact sheets for the remaining states that collect sales tax but do not yet have e-fairness laws. ABA launched E-FACT in January to provide booksellers with a wide array of state-specific tools to help them in their e-fairness outreach efforts.

New fact sheets are now available for:

Ten new state-specific fact sheets were added this week to the E-Fairness Action Kit (E-FACT) on BookWeb.org, ABA's member website. Over the next month, the American Booksellers Association will add fact sheets for each of the states that collect sales tax but do not yet have e-fairness laws. ABA launched E-FACT in January to provide booksellers with a wide array of state-specific tools to help them in their e-fairness outreach efforts.

New fact sheets are now available for:

This week, the American Booksellers Association began adding state-specific fact sheets to the E-Fairness Action Kit (E-FACT) on BookWeb.org, ABA's member website. Fact sheets are now available for California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Mexico, and Tennessee. Over the next month, ABA will add fact sheets for each of the states that collect sales tax but do not yet have e-fairness laws.

 On Wednesday, April 14, Suzy Staubach of UConn Co-op Bookstore in Storrs, Connecticut, went to the state capital in support of HB 5481, sales tax fairness legislation. Staubach, who was accompanied on her visit by ABA staff, met with the legislators representing the districts of both her home and UConn Co-op. These included meetings with House Majority Leader Rep. Denise Merrill; Rep. Bryan Hurlburt; Sen. President Pro Tempore Donald Williams; Sen. Anthony Guglielmo; and Sen. Andrew Roraback (on behalf of three ABA member bookstores in Roraback's district).

At an April 6 meeting between the American Booksellers Association and the Small Business Administration, the SBA asked if ABA member bookstores would offer their evaluation and feedback regarding the clarity and ease of use of a questionnaire related to Small Business Health Care Tax Credits.

This week, ABA President Michael Tucker, of Books Inc. in San Francisco, and ABA CEO Oren Teicher traveled to Washington, D.C., for a meeting with Karen Gordon Mills, head of the Small Business Administration, to discuss issues of importance to independent booksellers. Joining them at the meeting was SBA Chief of Staff Ana M. Ma.